Only open a couple of months but turning year-round profits

Cops and robbers, medieval knights and a mad scientist are just some of the costumes Spirit Halloween Superstore employees have worn over the past couple of months.

But despite the excitement of the spooky season, operating a seasonal business is not all tricks and treats, says local owner Grant Gassaway.

"A seasonal business is just like a year-round business, but with a different attitude," Gassaway said.

Most businesses go through the motions of opening a new location only a handful of times, but Spirit has restarted the process at the end of every summer for 10 years.

Preparations for a late-August grand opening begin about two months before Halloween, and about three weeks of planning and manual labor with a full crew are required to set up the Lubbock location, Gassaway said.

The staff converts the space that serves as a craft store into a Halloween town by changing up the light fixtures and turning the booths into quadrants to organize the incoming products. Gassaway even changes the wheels on the shopping carts to make the experience more enjoyable for customers.

Unlike most of the more than 1,000 other Spirit shops that sign temporary leases, Gassaway's location is unique in that he has a permanent lease for the building which operates as a craft store, Hidden Treasures, year-round.

"It's a tough business, so I've been fortunate not to have to move," Gassaway said. "But, at the same time, it is still a massive, massive undertaking. No one understands completely - unless you're in it - how big of a job this is."

Keeping the same location helps to form long-term relationships with customers, but finding building space is often a major challenge for the rest of the company.

"The locations are almost all short-term leases," said Crystal Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Spirit. "You always hope that you get the same location as last year, but it doesn't always work out that way."

Still, the corporate offices based in New Jersey, on the other hand, are All Hollow's Eve all year long.

"We work diligently all year round for those six to eight weeks out of the year," Rodriguez said.

The company is split into divisions that include a real estate team designated to find locations for each of the stores, in-store operators who open and break down the shops every fall and a home office staff that works throughout the year, she said.

Perhaps one of the most important duties of the full-year staff is following popular movie and television trends, Gassaway said.

For instance, some of this year's most popular costumes are characters from the new Marvel movies, the "Walking Dead" and even the outfits Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke wore during their controversial performance at the MTV Video Music Awards show.

Gauging pop culture trends is essential to ordering the right amount of costumes each year as costume sales are increasing annually compared to a decade ago.

According to reports by the National Retail Federation, American consumers will likely spend more than $2.5 billion on costumes alone, plus another near $3 billion on candy and decorations.

Calling Halloween "National Be Someone Else Day," Gassaway said the holiday isn't just for kids anymore, as adults - and even pets - now join in the festivities.

With the growing popularity of Halloween, the key to a successful seasonal venture, said Gassaway, is efficiency. Maps and scheduling diagrams fill the store owner's office as he meticulously plans for an overwhelming crowd each day.

"We've got about 35 people hired on right now just to try and manage the ebb and flow," he said. "We sit down and we brainstorm, 'What stops the cashiers from ringing up a sale?' It could be because a mask or something doesn't have a SKU number and things like that. They are simple things that really snowball if something goes awry up front."

The plans tend to center around crowd management as crowds tend to be heavier in the Lubbock location than in some other Spirit stores across the state due to limited competition in the region.

Gassaway said customers travel from all over the South Plains and New Mexico to visit the costume shop.

Additionally, the staff only works at the shop for a few weeks, but Gassaway tries to make each position financially rewarding. The owner said he gives weekly raises to those employees who prove deserving.

Though other stores in the area sell Halloween costumes and decorations every fall, Gassaway said he and his staff take pride in distinguishing themselves from other stores by transforming costume shopping into a full-blown Halloween experience for the few months Spirit is open.

The store owner has even gone as far as hiring a set designer from Texas Tech, Nick Wolfe, to create a lifesize replica of the farmhouse from the AMC show, "The Walking Dead."

Spirit will be open through Nov. 3 - the weekend following Halloween.

After closing, leftover costumes and decorations are either stored in an off-site location or discarded, Gassaway said.

rs.douglas@lubbockonline.com • 766-8742

Follow R.S. on Twitter @AJ_RSDouglas

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